Wheels
by GirlFromGa11ifrey
Summary: What happens when a tragedy strikes the Hummel-Hudson family?


Kurt was working on a car in the garage with his dad. He enjoyed working in the garage, unlike what most people thought. He liked being able to use his hands to be able to take something broken and make it work again. It made him feel like he was useful, contradicting what he was told almost every day. He also got to spend time with his dad doing one of the few things that they both enjoy. Today he was just changing a tire, he was using a normal jack, the type that people keep in their cars, because it was a busy day and all of the lifts were being used. Burt didn't like Kurt working on the cars when he wasn't there to keep an eye on him in case he hurt himself, even though he had been doing odd jobs at the garage since he was eight. So Kurt was doing an easy and safe job while his dad was back in the office looking through some papers, which meant that he was really having a break but didn't want the others to know. While Kurt was undoing one of the bolts that held the wheel on, he let his gaze wonder to the underneath of the car, he spotted something that didn't look quite right with the transfer box. So Kurt grabbed a creeper, laid on it and scooted under the car. He always enjoyed using the creepers because they were like skateboards that lay on. To get to the place where the problem was Kurt had to move around the car and come under from the other side and be in line with the wheels. While he was fiddling with the broken part, trying to figure out if it could be mended or needed to be changed, Kurt heard heavy footsteps approaching the car. Assuming that it was his dad, Kurt slid his torso out from under the car to apologise and placate his dad for being under the car.

"Look, Dad, I know that you said tha…" Kurt started until he realised that it wasn't his dad. It was Karofsky. The bully was gazing down at him.

"So, the fag works at the garage. What you doing? Playing straight for daddy?" Karofsky teased with his stupid smirk.

"My dad knows I'm gay and he owns this garage so I think you should leave before he comes back in a moment." Kurt replied sharply, he was in no mood to be dealing with this.

"Oh, does the fag need daddy to protect him. Well, he's not here right now. So what's to stop me doing this?" Karofsky taunted while he pressed his foot against the jack, the jack that was the only thing keeping Kurt from being crushed under the weight of the car.

"NO, don't do that! If you move that I will die and then you will go to jail for the rest of your life. You may even get the death sentence." Kurt pleaded while trying to struggle from under the car but Karofsky was in the way.

"Well, no one knows I'm here and if you are dead no one can tell so I have nothing to fear. You don't think the police will actually try to find me anyway you fag." Karofsky sneered and kicked the jack from under the car. He then ran and escaped in his car to the sound of Kurt's scream of agony.

Hearing Kurt's scream, Burt ran out of the office to see his son being crushed from his hips down by a car.

"KURT!" Burt shouted as he sprinted towards his only son. He was panicking to see that Kurt had lost consciousness. It was both a blessing and curse. Kurt wasn't in pain anymore but he would be in a better situation if he was awake.

"Burt, I called 911 and they said that we have to get the car off him and then don't touch him." One of the mechanics said, Burt wasn't sure which one but was only focusing on the words and his son.

"Okay, erm, get the crane and we can lift the car over to the gap in between the two lifts at the end." Burt said, taking charge and trying to get the thing hurting his son away.

The group of men attached the crane to the car and slowly lifted the car off of Kurt while Burt held his son down, in case he woke up or got stuck to the wheel. Once the car was off the mechanics left to move the car and to finish what they were doing as they knew they could be no help, as much as they were attached to the boy, he was Burt's son. One of them stayed with Burt to make sure he didn't try to move Kurt and another went outside to direct the ambulance.

When the ambulance got there, the paramedics lifted Kurt up onto a backboard and strapped his head down to stop it flopping about in the ambulance. They quickly moved him into the ambulance and started to connect him to various things while Burt got in.

"Can I hold his hand?" Burt said.

"Yes, but make sure you don't move him too much and stay out of our way." A paramedic replied.

Burt sat, holding Kurt's hand all the way to the hospital, wishing that Kurt's mother was still there. She would know how to react calmly, or at least be able to keep a level head until they were at the hospital.

Before Burt knew it they were at the hospital and he was ushered into an empty waiting room by a nurse.

"You can call people from here if you want. The Doctor will tell you how your son is after surgery is complete." Burt was informed.

Burt then realised that while Kurt's mother might not be there, Kurt's stepmother and stepbrother certainly were. They were having parent/son bonding while he and Kurt had been doing the same at the garage. They didn't know anything was wrong.

Burt dialled Carole on his phone.

"Hey honey, aren't you supposed to be with Kurt?" was the first thing he heard from Carole.

Burt sobbed into the phone.

"What's wrong?" Carole sounded panicked.

"Kurt's in the hospital. Can you come here please?" Burt said softly, as if talking in the quiet of the waiting room would hurt his son more.

"What happened?"

"I'll tell you when you get here. It's not something you can say over the phone."

"Okay, Finn and I will be there in a couple minutes. Bye"

"Bye" Burt said as he hung up.

Finn and Carole were snuggled up on the sofa watching reruns of 'Who's Line Is It Anyway' when Carole's phone rang. She got up and walked into the hallway.

"I'll be right back, Finn." She reassured the teen.

She picked up the phone.

"Hey honey, aren't you supposed to be with Kurt?" She asked her husband whom she saw was calling. This question drew a sob from the strong man she was wedded to. This made her immediately suspicious. There would be few reasons for Burt to sob at Kurt's name.

"What's wrong?" she questioned.

"Kurt's in the hospital. Can you come here please?" She heard over the phone. Now she was really panicked. It was a well-known fact that Kurt hated the hospital so it had to be pretty serious for him to allow himself to be taken there. This concerned her greatly. Sure, he wasn't her biological son, but he was still her son. They had bonded over the wedding planning. As far as she was concerned she had two sons.

"What happened?"

"I'll tell you when you get here. It's not something you can say over the phone." This really scared Carole as she thought it might have been a really deep cut or bad burn, but this told her it was much more severe.

"Okay, Finn and I will be there in a couple minutes. Bye"

"Bye" Burt hung up.

"FINN!" Carole shouted as she grabbed her car keys and shoved her coat on.

"What's wrong?" Finn said as he ran from the lounge.

"Kurt's in the hospital. Let's go."

"Wait. What happened?" Finn said. Carole knew that he son could be a bit slow, but you couldn't deny that he was a good brother to Kurt. After the incident, as they had taken to calling it, the boys had come extremely close. Almost as if they had been brothers from birth. Finn was very protective of his 'little brother'. Kurt always pretended to be annoyed by this as he was three months older than Finn, but they all knew that Kurt was fine with his nicknames.

"I don't know, Burt just said that he couldn't tell me over the phone."

They drove as fast as they could and in complete silence. Once they got to the hospital they both ran to the front desk.

"Kurt Hummel." Carole asked.

"Go down the hall and into waiting room 4. His father is in there." The nurse said.

Burt sat in the room with his head hanging above his knees. Kurt was his everything. Sure, he had Carole and Finn, but Kurt was the only connection to his first wife. In his own right, Kurt was everything. Kurt had looked after him for 8 years before he introduced Burt and Carole. Burt couldn't kid himself that it was the other way around.

Burt looked up as he heard the door open. He saw Carole and Finn come in.

"What happened to Kurt?" Asked Finn, sounding like a child, showing how scared he was for his brother. Finn was a sweet kid. Burt loved having someone to talk football and girls with. He felt terrible about when he ignored Kurt for Finn.

"He was under a car, for some reason only his legs were under it, and the jack must have fallen over or something because the car fell on him and the tyre was on his hips. C-crushing him." Burt sobbed into Carole's shoulder.

The family sat in silence, waiting for news on the missing member.


End file.
